When British Columbia residents heard that Nestlé was only being charged $2.25 per million litres to bottle up our water and sell it back to us, we were furious.
I, for one, wanted to do what this panda is doing.
We weren’t just angry because Nestlé has a terribly track record in their dealings with developing nations.
We weren’t just angry because B.C. is “renting out” access to our water for far less than other provinces.
We were angry because water is a part of B.C. culture. Continue reading
Posted in Canada, Economy, environmentalism
Tagged $2.25 per million litres, access, Alberta, Alberta drivers, B.C. residents, bad track record, BC culture, beach, British Columbia, california, camping, Canada, CBC, climate change, commodity, debate, developing nations, drought, Economics, fees, freshwater, furious, ground water, legal, NAFTA, Nestle, North American Water and Power Alliance, pollution, precedent, protected land, provinces, public control, Rocky Mountain Trench, sell, sue, Sum of Us, summer, Sun Belt Water Inc, swimming, threat, U.S.A., water, water access, water control, water exports, water policy, water sovereignty, WTO
Today the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage in all 50 states. Right now my Facebook feed is blowing up, with the vast majority of my online acquaintances rejoicing that a ruling that’s been a long time coming has finally passed. To sum it up in only eight short words:
On the other side of things, though very few and far between, there is a sentiment in direct opposition. There weren’t many for me, but I think most people will find at least one status that falls roughly along these same lines:
The internet is never silent on the most innocuous of issues, and when it comes to an event as groundbreaking as this one there isn’t a person who can keep from putting in their two cents. As Kat observed last year the words we post online are made subject to scrutiny, with one of the tamest consequences being that someone will voice their disagreement. As another Facebook very wisely tacked on to the end of their status: “*If you do not support gay marriage, please do not respond to this post. This is a genuinely wonderful occasion for many that I love.”
This all connects back to a topic I’ve been meaning to cover for a while, which is the idea of “safe spaces”. It goes beyond simply wanting others to leave a Facebook status as a forum for positivity instead of debate to having a place where we can rest assured we won’t be outright attacked. Continue reading
Posted in feminism, internet, lgbt, race
Tagged Asian Avenue, attack, circle jerk, closed-minded, Community, conversation, curate, debate, discussion, echo chamber, Facebook, feminism, Generous Space, hive mind, internet, lgbt, open-minded, opinions, reddit, safe space, social networking, Tumblr, Twitter
In the final hours of September 21, 2011, the State of Georgia executed an innocent man. Troy Davis, born 1968, had been wrongfully convicted and subsequently murdered after spending nearly two decades in prison. In spite of cries of protest from former presidents, the director of the FBI, the pope and countless activists, Davis was killed for a crime he did not commit.
Such is our thirst for blood- and it is blood that we’re after.
Mel Gibson’s a racist lunatic, but this was a pretty dang cool movie…
We might dress it up as “justice” or a “deterrent” or any number of grotesque charades, but make no mistake, it is an emotional drive for vengeance that is overwhelmingly behind this. Christopher Hitchens, complicated man that he was, got it right when he called the death penalty “Human Sacrifice” in his 1997 debate on the subject.
We seem to have, as a society, a twisted sense of justice. We’re happy to serve up a person- any person- for slaughter to convince ourselves that justice as been done. Someone‘s got to pay when a crime is committed, whether or not that person actually did it seems of little consequence to us, as evidenced by the long and still-growing list of innocent men, women, and yes, even children who we’ve sacrificed for our appetites.
For this reason, today we’re going to be addressing the foundations of the arguments in favor of the death penalty. Continue reading
Posted in America, crime, government, history, morality, politics
Tagged America, arendt, capital punishment, christopher hitchens, crime, criminals, death penalty, debate, deter, detterant, eichmann, guilty, hang, hanging, horse thief, innocent, justice, lethal injection, parole, prison, society, solitary confinement, torture, Troy Davis
So I watched this documentary last night:
Before watching Cool It I expected it to be just like Expelled, which, in my opinion, had a very strong right wing agenda. I don’t want to imply that everything “right-wing” is innately propaganda, or that the left isn’t just as capable of creating its own propaganda, but I disliked Expelled‘s attempt to undermine evolution by framing all creationists as victims. So I wasn’t really watching this film with much of an open mind, but by the end was actually impressed. Just a heads up, from this point on there are spoilers galore. Continue reading
Posted in environmentalism, film, review, science
Tagged agenda, algae, Annie Leonard, biofuel, Bjorn Lomborg, cap and trade, climate change, Cool It, debate, developing world, documentary, Economics, environmentalism, fossil fuels, geo-engineering, Global Warming, Green solutions, Kyoto, politics, pollution, solar power, Story of Stuff, wave power, wind power
GORDON: Ladies and gentlemen, it has fallen to Kat and I to provide you with today’s topic. Some people would say we arrived at the topic gradually over time, making little changes along the way, others maintain it was created within seven minutes.
It’s evolution and creationism and the place of both in our society.
KAT: Exactly. So Gordon and I were tossing around some ideas for tonight’s CWC and arrived at this one. It was Gordon’s suggestion, so I thought maybe you (Gordon) wouldn’t mind describing why it came to mind.
GORDON: Well, it was posted in my Facebook feed that Bill Nye, acclaimed figure of the scientific community, will very shortly be debating creationist Ken Ham on the subject of creation vs. evolution. What really caught my attention though, and lead to me suggesting the topic, was that the person who had posted it was saying it was a shame that Bill Nye was doing this- that this debate would just legitimate something that had no standing.
Posted in Christianity, Culture War Correspondence, education, religion, science
Tagged Bill Nye, biologos, Christianity, creation, creationism, Culture War Correspondence, Darwin, darwinism, debate, Education, evolution, fossil record, God, Ken Ham, public schools, religion, science, Statistics
I’ve seen both sides of this debate.
I grew up in a devotedly pro-life home. I was taught pro-life apologetics and arguments (largely from books by Peter Kreeft [go read The Unaborted Socrates]). In spite of that, my study of the development of life and my debates with pro-choicers led me eventually to cross the line. I concluded that if personhood ends with the cessation of brain activity, surely it must begin with it as well.
All that’s to say I’ve had first hand experience with both sides of the highly contentious issue.
But I’m not here to talk about abortion. I’m hear to shine the spotlight on the supreme nitwits who scream the loudest from both sides of the argument. Let’s break it down here. Continue reading
Posted in America, morality, politics, religion, sex, Shame Day
Tagged abortion, abortion clinic, bomb, brood of vipers, Christian, Christian rock, Congress, conservative, debate, democrat, doctor, I blew up the clinic real good, incest, john the baptist, kill, liberal, majority, mermaid syndrome, Mitt Romney, murder, peter kreeft, politician, politics, pro-choice, pro-life, rape, republican, Senate, shame day, SIrenomelia, Steve Taylor
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